Day: September 18, 2013

MDN has made it plain we believe New York State Dept. of Health Commissioner Nirav Shah, who in February of this year said he was just “weeks away” from releasing the results of his research on the potential public health impacts of proposed new fracking rules from the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation, is covering for his boss, Gov. Andrew “Ditherer” Cuomo (see Cuomo Underling Shah: “No Timetable” on Fracking Decision). We on the pro-drilling side of the debate are not the only ones unhappy with the Cuomo/Shah marionette show.

This week an anti-drilling group from the Finger Lakes area–the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association–sued Shah and the Dept. of Health in an attempt to get the research documents finally released. The Association previously filed Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests in an effort to obtain the documents but Shah refused. Now the courts may finally force Andrew the Great Ditherer to finally get off his rear-end and make a decision by requiring Shah to release his findings…Continue reading

Steven Chu, former Secretary of Energy in the Obama administration (from 2009-2013) was the keynote speaker at America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) energy summit in Columbus, OH this week. Speaking yesterday to the assembled group of pro-drillers, Chu said fracking can be done safely. According to Chu, it’s possible to “have your cake and eat it too.” That is, fracking is safe and it provides inexpensive energy.

Chu also predicted the price of natural gas for the next 20 years (brave man)…Continue reading

What’s it like when drilling comes to town? Who better to tell us than someone from “the epicenter” of drilling in eastern Ohio? Amy Rutledge is director of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce. She spoke this week at an energy summit in Columbus sponsored by America’s Natural Gas Alliance.

Startling fact #1: According to Rutledge, Carroll County has fewer than 30,000 people living it–but when drilling came to town, 200 property owners in Carroll became instant millionaires from the bonus checks they received. Startling fact #2: Drillers have (so far) paid over $40 million to rebuild Carroll County’s roadways–that’s 80 years worth of road work completed in two years for a county with an annual budget of just $500,000 allocated for roads…Continue reading

We think this is kind of funny. The Syracuse Post-Standard, a strongly anti-drilling publication, has done its best pejorative reporting on the issue of fracking in an attempt to whip up dissent in central New York. In their latest attempt to plant the seeds of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about fracking, they run a pro-drilling video created by the American Petroleum Institute on their website. In the introduction/setup for the video they remind people of a broken pipeline due to flooding. Then they ask people to fill out a snap poll asking whether or not fracking should be allowed here, in New York State.

The results of the poll (below) are astonishing. Although you might think readers of the Post-Standard would be largely anti-drilling, it’s quite the opposite. Out of 857 respondents (including yours truly), 83%, or 715 votes, say frack here, frack now. A paltry 86 people (10%) want it banned…Continue reading

Who doesn’t remember, with fondness, growing up watching Sesame Street? On the air since 1969, Sesame Street has done more to influence and educate children (many now adults) than any other television show in the last 45 years. Their iconic “Today’s episode is brought to you by the letter — and the number –” made learning fun. Perhaps in a nod to the success of Sesame Street (or perhaps not), the Independent Oil & Gas Association (IOGA) of New York has launched a new campaign series called “Natural Gas Number” aimed at legislative leaders in Albany–people who badly need to learn the basic facts about drilling.

IOGA’s first “brought to you by” number is 1,882 — the number of days that have passed since the moratorium on shale drilling in New York began…Continue reading

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Community & Economic Development (DCED) is hitting the road this week for its third installment of “DCED on the road.” This time they’re heading to Clearfield County, PA in northcentral PA to talk with Forum Energy Technologies, a manufacturer and supplier (i.e. supply chain company) for the Marcellus Shale natural gas industry.

While visiting Forum Energy to highlight their tremendous success due to the Marcellus, DCED reps will also visit others in the area on a listening tour–to find out what obstacles still exist for business and communities…Continue reading

Global research company IHS released a new study yesterday about the huge supply of oil (yes, oil) that now exists worldwide because of shale. Oil retrieved from shale deposits is referred to as “tight oil” and according to IHS, the world apart from North America has nearly 300 billion (with a “b”) barrels of tight oil available–if they have the will to get it. In order to get it, they’ll have to frack for it. For perspective, the U.S., the biggest oil consumer in the world, consumed 6.7 billion barrels of oil for all of 2012 (according to EIA statistics).

The new IHS study is titled Going Global: Predicting the Next Tight Oil Revolution. Unfortunately we could not get our hands on a copy to review. However, we were able to find a chart reportedly from the study which shows how big the deposits of tight oil are by region (see our Pinterest images on the right side of any MDN web page). The surprise for us: The biggest potential non-U.S. source of tight oil is Africa…Continue reading